Crested geckos, also known as eyelash geckos (Correlophus ciliatus), are a favorite among reptile enthusiasts due to their docile nature, unique appearance, and relatively simple care requirements. Native to southern New Caledonia, these arboreal lizards were once thought to be extinct until their rediscovery in 1994. A crucial aspect of crested gecko care is providing a proper diet to ensure their health and longevity, which can be 15-20 years in captivity. This guide offers comprehensive information on what to feed your crested gecko, how often, and important considerations for their nutritional needs.
Understanding the Crested Gecko's Dietary Needs
Crested geckos are omnivores, meaning they consume both plant and animal matter. In the wild, their diet consists of insects, small invertebrates, pollen, soft seeds, and soft, rotting fruits. Replicating this varied diet in captivity is key to their well-being.
Commercial Crested Gecko Diets (CGD)
One of the easiest and most convenient ways to feed your crested gecko is with a commercially available crested gecko diet (CGD). These specially formulated foods come in powder form, which you mix with water to create a creamy texture that your gecko will love.
Benefits of CGD
- Nutritionally Complete: High-quality CGDs are designed to provide all the necessary vitamins, minerals, and nutrients a crested gecko needs to thrive.
- Convenience: CGDs are easy to prepare and offer a balanced diet without the need for constant supplementation.
Choosing the Right CGD
There are many reputable brands of crested gecko diet available in pet stores or online. When selecting a CGD, consider the following:
- Ingredients: Look for a CGD with natural ingredients and avoid those with artificial colors, additives, or preservatives.
- Reputation: Opt for well-known brands like Repashy Crested Gecko Diet or Pangea, which are popular among breeders and keepers for their balanced formulas. Repashy Crested Gecko Diet is a very popular powdered diet and possibly one of the most balanced diets used by many keepers and breeders and comes in a silver pouch.
Feeding CGD
Mix the powdered diet with water to a ketchup or smoothie consistency and offer in a biodegradable condiment cup. Most cresties prefer eating up off of the ground, so you’ll need a wall-mounted feeding ledge.
Read also: Learn about Great Crested Flycatchers
Transitioning to CGD
Some geckos are raised on powdered diets and happily eat the meal whereas those raised on baby food previously can be rather finicky about the change. There are several flavors available for the Repashy diet to help even the pickiest eater convert over.
Fruits and Vegetables
In addition to their commercial diet, crested geckos enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits provide essential vitamins, minerals, and moisture, while vegetables add fiber to their diet.
Safe Fruits and Vegetables
- Fruits: Peach, guava, banana, mango, apricots, papaya, and berries.
- Vegetables: While crested geckos primarily eat fruits, they can also consume small amounts of vegetables. Offer finely chopped or pureed vegetables like squash or sweet potato in moderation.
How to Offer Fruits and Vegetables
- Preparation: Always wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly before feeding. Cut them into small, manageable pieces or create a puree.
- Serving: Offer fruits and vegetables in a shallow dish or on a feeding ledge.
- Frequency: Fruits and vegetables can be offered a few times a week as a supplement to their CGD.
Baby Food
Peach, guava, banana, and papaya fruit puree or baby food can be offered on a small plate or shallow dish. Never let this food sit longer than 4-6 hours to prevent bacterial growth on the food. Some keepers have been known to mix meat baby food and fruit baby food together to add protein to the meal at a ratio of 1 part meat to 3 parts fruit baby food. It is not highly recommended to feed baby food and/or fruit puree as a staple of the crested geckos diet due to the high sugar concentration and unbalanced vitamin and minerals. Baby foods should not have any added sugar or preservatives.
Insects
While crested geckos are primarily fruit eaters, they are omnivores, which means they will occasionally eat small insects.
Suitable Insects
- Crickets: A great source of protein.
- Dubia Roaches: Another excellent source of protein and nutrients. Roaches such as Dubias are higher in protein.
- Waxworms: Can be offered occasionally as treats, especially for thin geckos.
- CalciWorms®: Are used for adding the required calcium to a diet, calcium is very important so offer CalciWorms® 2 to 3 times week.*Note: Avoid mealworms and superworms.
Gut Loading and Dusting Insects
Insects, especially cockroaches and crickets should be gut loaded prior to feeding out. Offering these prey items healthy calcium rich greens such as kale and Swiss chard is required for a positive calcium to phosphorous ratio (this prevents and corrects metabolic bone disease). Before being fed to a gecko, live insects must be gut-loaded with a nutrient-dense insect supplement to improve their nutritional value. Super Load by Repashy is the gut loading formula we use and recommend, as well as fresh leafy vegetables.
Read also: Delicious Food in Crested Butte
To ensure your crested gecko is getting all the nutrients it needs, supplements are crucial. Dust your gecko’s insects with a calcium supplement with vitamin D before each feeding session. To dust insects, place them in a bag or disposable plastic container along with a powdered supplement. Fruit puree, baby food, and or insects must be dusted with a calcium supplement (one without phosphorous) 3-4 times a week and a multi-vitamin once a week unless a powdered diet is being used. If you are using UVB light in your crested gecko’s enclosure, use a calcium powder without vitamin D.
Feeding Frequency
It's important to feed insects in moderation. Overfeeding insects can lead to obesity or an imbalance in nutrition. Offer insects 1x/week for best results. The number of insects offered depends on the amount of insects the crested can eat in 10 minutes. It is never recommended to leave insects, especially crickets, unattended in the enclosure of crested geckos, especially hatchlings, as they can inflict serious injury to cresties.
Water
Always provide fresh water for your crested gecko. Crested Geckos were thought to be extinct until 1994 but now they are very popular in the captive reptile trade. Originally from the New Caledonian Islands near Australia, Crested Geckos make excellent pets as they are extremely hardy and easy to keep. Crested Gecko diets are not restricted to insects alone, there are many commercial diets available for them and they enjoy many types of fruit as well. Most breeders will agree that the best diet plan for a Crested Gecko will be a mixture of commercial diets and insects such as appropriate sized crickets.
How to Provide Water
Contrary to popular belief, YES - crested geckos can see, recognize, and drink water from a bowl. Most feeding ledges have space for two condiment cups, so provide CGD in one of them, and fresh water (not distilled or reverse-osmosis) in the other. A small water bowl should also be offered. Make sure this is not deep as babies can easily drown if they fall in. Although they are good at obtaining moisture from fruits, they still need access to clean water. Crested geckos drink water from licking droplets, thus misting their enclosure is usually the best way to offer your gecko water while also increasing the humidity. It is also recommended that you keep a small water dish available at all times for your gecko as crested geckos are known to use a water dish. Spray the cage with water once or twice a day, Crested Geckos tend to be more active after spraying.
Feeding Schedule
- Hatchlings: Should be fed the powdered diet/baby food/fruit puree every other day and appropriately sized insects once a week.
- Adults: Are fed powdered diet/baby food/fruit puree two times a week and insects two times a week. Some breeders feed their crested geckos daily alternating between powdered diets/baby food/fruit puree and insects.
Foods to Avoid
Not all foods are safe for crested geckos. It is important to avoid:
Read also: Ultimate Crested Gecko Care
- Insects from the Wild: These may carry parasites or pesticides.
- Toxic Fruits and Vegetables: Avoid citrus fruits, onions, and garlic.
- Baby food: No. Baby food typically contains preservatives, and artificial colors/flavors.
Recognizing and Addressing Dietary Issues
Obesity
Watch for signs of obesity: Overfeeding, especially with high-calorie foods, can lead to obesity.
Picky Eaters
Some crested geckos can be picky eaters. If your gecko is refusing crested gecko diet, do not offer insects, baby food, or any other sort of treat. The vitamins and minerals that make up the crested gecko diet are essential for proper growth and nutrition, which is vitally important, especially for young growing geckos. Continue to offer powdered food mix at all times even if you do not think they are eating it. Oftentimes they will eat when you are not looking and it can seem like they never touched it. Only adding a small bit to the bowl so you can see lick marks is a good way to tell if they are eating their food. If you are seeing poop they are eating! If you are having issues with your gecko eating, check the “Gecko Troubleshooting” page for more information.
Additional Tips for a Healthy Crested Gecko
- Enrichment: Crested geckos require lots of vertical coverage and climbing areas to thrive. Being a mostly arboreal species, they will benefit more from things towards the top ⅔ of their enclosure more than they will from enrichment in the lower ⅓. Suction cup plants can be used to provide coverage and security on the sides of the enclosure and serve as a place for your gecko to retreat and rest. Sticks, wood, and cork rounds are great climbing options for your gecko and should be large enough for your gecko’s body to climb efficiently and rest comfortably on them.
- Temperature: Crested geckos do well at temperatures between 72-78ºF, they can tolerate higher temperatures into the low 80’s for short periods of time but temperatures should not exceed 85ºF for any period of time. Unless your temperatures are consistently below 72ºF your gecko will not need a heat source.
- Humidity: Humidity levels should be kept around 60-70%. Keeping your gecko too saturated or too dry can both lead to shedding issues therefore the humidity spike and dry out period are important for geckos to properly shed.
- Supplements: Dust your gecko’s insects with a calcium supplement with vitamin D before each feeding session.